Thursday, March 22, 2012

.. continued.. In every group, there will be a smart guy who speaks more than that tea's worth. Forgive him, for i have spoken the same dialogue so many times .. Yea, I did not wait for anything he continued, She had replies that had a positive touch. And so, I slipped my phone number carefully while she was about to travel to her native.

[Side Note : I’m writing something that happened just like a pattern in many of my friends life. *evil grin* for all those who took it the other way ]

From then on, it started with : "had ur dinner ?” .. “cross the road carefully” .. “eat properly” and then to :"what’s your favorite color ? … "who do u like in ur family ?" “Do you know to cook ?” (eligible for a TV host ? yes ). Those are the times when one finds the virtual world more colorful and interesting than reality. He looked pale, he said “It was then I found out that she was already in a complicated relationship “. God !! What?? Yea, he continued with a serious tone, she has a guy studying abroad whom she calls as her best buddy blah blah...

There’s a another type of guy in every team, who looks at everything with a positive attitude, he went forth, and had his say : “hey what if he's the best buddy ? How do you think that affects your chances of getting through” . (As if he is attempting to get through Civil services exam) Mr. Attitude continued, It's simple, put down your thoughts and let her decide what she wants. One of my other friend in the group opposed it, he said that it would be one of the biggest mistakes in his career, never try your luck with a girl who is in a complicated relationship. It makes the situation even more worse. Those words are still there in my heart, I can never forget him, but what’s the use ?Spilt MILK !

Hero nodded his head, acknowledging the above said words and we kinda guessed what might have happened. He started off again, I shared my views : getting settled, with her by my side and I also had a feeling like one of those fairy tales : “happy lived ever after” . I shared her my point of views of how I would like to take her from this point (Mt or a Cliff ?? ) etc., At first she was snuggling to get into a comfortable position but later on, *I felt* she was totally comfortable with me. I had an opportunity to meet her, her cousin, and that cousin’s girl friend on a certain day in the city. And we even managed to spend that whole day in a couple of tourist spots. It was then, she opened up some more interesting facts, he sighed.

She told me a weird thing, What now ??!.. She told me that her mom was not interested in getting her married to some other guy at any cost. But why and whom does she think of getting her married to ? was the question which popped immediately. Well of course, he continued, (like MS Dhoni in a post match presentation..) Her mom has other plans for her it seems, which she herself is not aware of and she said that she is emotionally attached to her than any other person in this world. Even a test tube baby loves his/her mom, why do they utter such words ? as if they are they only creatures who are attached to their moms… Phew murmured the girl hater.

His tone became even more duller, when he said, I didn’t know machan, I didn’t know the implication of those words first. But after saying all that, she came near me held my hand and said “don’t let me off at any point of your life” .. That’s the epic moment we were waiting for, whistles all over the room. The guy who spoke about the complicated relationship, had the guts to stay calm. As soon as the celebrations were over, he said you cannot trust such kinda gals who are fickle minded. Risky !

But he continued, She wants to fall in love, she likes me very much but at the same time, she wants to do what her mom decides for her. (Briefly in Tamizh, Kilinja kudai kiliyaaama venum) Like that of a pendulum, her thoughts were swaying from one corner to the other. What else do you think I can do ? Nothing much, I used to come back to my room everyday and rant about her missing messages. And I used to ask my roomie (–> me ), why do I feel so bad when she despises me, I have even written down letters, things that I wanted to tell her. I have even tried convincing myself that this will not happen and to carry on with my life. As a friend said, keep the green tree in your heart, the singing bird will surely come.. (wait, wait.. Even I’m searching for him ) But, “Mudiyala” he concluded.. It was time and that talk became so serious that somebody had to definitely break the ice.

We were damn interested, we asked him “ after that ?” yea, all of them together in that chorus fashion.. Well, I waited for a few more months and then came a shocker. She said that she is getting engaged , and she will be leaving to Singapore immediately after that. Her mom came to know about all this stuff, and they immediately decided to send her off. He said that casually, just like ordering a pizza at Dominoes. (We were like WTF?!), he said, yea she decided to marry the guy whom her mom has decided for her. But even while conveying that message, She said that she likes me and she wants to be with me. Atrocious, what does she think of you ?? A tool ? A toy ??, we lost our temper. We didn’t know what might have been running in that girl’s mind but we were damn sure that this guy lost that spirit with which he started narrating that story.

Finally, the guy who spoke with much clarity all throughout the talk concluded, I knew this da.. This happens, and that was the reason why men of the 70s / 80s never allowed women to decide on things which they were never good at. I know that’s a bit too strong to quote here but yes, that was a college boys’ perspective, so to say a losing side’s perspective. Why does one have to spoil other’s life, if they themselves are not sure about how things are going to be ? We accepted all this, but even after so many things, he said that the girl still tried convincing him that “SHE STILL LOVED HIM” [dot]

Monday, March 19, 2012

Whenever I ask my friends to narrate their romantic stories, the first thing they say is "She was such a beautiful girl" (even if she looks like a witch, we are forced to accept that with a smile and collect that free tea which they get for you ;) )! Just to break away from that cliche I've planned to narrate a story with a different start. Hmm.. hmm, anyways title's partially true as well (forgive me). Wait a sec, I missed a cautionary note here: This post is a blend of some *Truth and fiction* and I've made sure, the composition / blend is perfect.

This is one of those stories that I've heard during a semester's eve. One would not get to know how special that eve is except for an engineer,when the book remains totally untouched for the last 6 months ! Even then, that's when we share a lot of thriller / romantic / action stories that had happened in the past. One such a romantic thriller is this one, I do not know how many of would nod your head after reading this but I'm sure this should have happened in many of our lives.

Met her in a wedding occasion, he said.. Hey, you said orkut the other day ? interrupted a friend with his recent finding, yea yea.. I came to know about her through Orkut but met her for the first time in a wedding occasion, he managed to answer..the way a guy manages to connect those dots while narrating, Aiyo.. ! (*Orkut is a social networking website :P ) after that, i sent a msg via Orkut saying that I might know her through one of my family members, you should have seen his facial reactions,especially when he said "my family members". Waah, I still don't remember a single good thing that he has shared about his relatives in the recent past. But now, to get a single positive tip about how she was related to her, he has performed some kinda FBI investigation.

It is that day I understood a fact that not only a jealous girl but a boy who wants to know about his gal would dare to do anything to get the info they need. Somehow, I tracked all the related details da, he continued..She seems to be my cup of tea. Trust me, even If she has committed a couple of murders and she is a part of a terrorist organisation, he would say the same thing. She seems to be a comely girl and I indirectly asked her if she was "Single". She said that she wasn't interested in a relationship right from her schooling and she said that she hasn't met her kinda boy yet. Her parents are friendly with her, and her mom seems to be a very straight forward person. She has a sister it seems ra, but her route is clear. (actually he meant to say, his route was clear) Finally a friend interrupted him, he said..wow, thats amazing..!! She comes from a good family bg, same community, "distant" relative and the most important thing is she's still SINGLE.. so what are you waiting for ?

Thursday, March 1, 2012

When I reached my pre-final year of engineering at MIT, I witnessed my T-Senior’s placement struggles as all others. In MIT we have this tradition of calling one as “Technocrat Senior” – the senior guy with the same register number, who is technically the guide for everything. I was interested to know how he managed to clear his interviews and other things. My T-Senior was an interesting guy, you can never see him studying much but still he scores. One of the best choreographers, and right now a director as well !

I didn’t ask much about his interviews, Frankly speaking I was little afraid that his friends might rag me (even though I was in my pre-final year ), but still he shared his experience with a certain MNC where he cleared all the rounds. Prior to this MNC which comes in the dream category, we were allowed to have an offer from a non-dream category as well. And yes, he had an offer from a service company (non-dream quota) with that in hand, he entered the final rounds of the product company (dream quota).

He said that he was questioned as why would he chose this company to the one for which he had an offer already. He told them an analogy which is, if a kid is given a new toy to play with, he/she always likes to play with them for a longer time than the older one. And immediately they asked him what if another new toy comes in ?!! Actually he didn’t expect that, Clever guy .. he managed to come up with an answer to overshadow the mistake he made in the analogy quoted above. He then said, that’s a service company and this is a product company. I would like to contribute to a product and be recognized among the few rather than being a part of a crowd, where the probability of me & my work going unnoticed is pretty high. Taking into consideration : work load, work-life balance and the package compensation, he said I’d rather choose this one.

Well, that was his answer and yea I know that everyone has their own version for this. Some might agree with this, while some might argue about the onsite opportunities etc. But the truth is, almost all the things are same. What I hear from most of my friends working across different product companies is that, the kind of work taken over by them (ie., in India) is almost similar to that of the service side. I mean, none of the product companies do own the core technology projects here except for few, and all others own projects that needs maintenance, support, UI plumbing and documentation. (trust me )

And if you take into consideration about the work load, work-life balance and the *package compensation*, it might look like its skewed to one side (product side) but its not ! .. It’s the same, except for the dress code and the work timings. The above mentioned answer was attractive only during our final year, when we had a product company’s offer letter in our hands, but the truth :-/ nobody told us. We had it figured out ourselves. No no, Im not going to tell you that the far off land is always green Noo… After two and a half years, I’m telling you that its :” Same Shit “.. !